What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We have been deeply involved in the preparation of potential new drug launches that aim to change the treatment landscape for serious fatal and debilitating diseases, such as Alzheimer, Post-Partum Depression and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. We are also close collaborating with our global teams in assessing the legal and regulatory framework of disruptive healthcare digital solutions and devices. In this context, we´ve announced a brand-new partnership with Apple and other innovative companies, in developing solutions to allow an early and fast diagnostic of fatal diseases such as Alzheimer, which until today are still hard and expensive to diagnose. We´ve also implemented an internal global restructuring process, which presented a unique set of challenges, given that we were still working remotely at the time.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

Definitely. Legal played a leading role in Brazil for example, by co-chairing our internal crisis committee. The ability to continue operating in Brazil without significant disruptions was largely led by us. Innovative actions that we have implemented before the lockdowns, such as full-scale digital signature process, with different security levels according to each document nature, were key to ensure that no contract or product supply was interrupted because someone could not sign a piece of paper. Also, the legal team helped to quickly assess and implement digital solutions that allowed our field force teams to continue interacting with our clients and stakeholders, as seamlessly as possible. Also, we cannot understate all the complexities and nuances that we have helped the company to navigate that were brought by the hybrid work.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

The way we practice law has changed a lot in the past 10 years and I believe will continue, however at a much faster pace. We now petition in lawsuits electronically and join hearings by videocalls. Digital signatures, visual law, CLMs, e-billing and dashboard are here to stay. Quite frankly, we are delivering more value with much less time and effort. For the future, I feel AI will bring productiveness, decreasing the time we spend in harvesting data, by quickly giving us clear avenues of action. Litigations could be drastically reduced when data intelligence starts to clearly show the odds of success versus costs, through a friendly-user interface. Lastly, I also expect a significant change in contracts management and review, thanks to blockchain. I think it is safe to say notarisations and evidence collection are ripe for disruption as well.